HOW IT CAME TO US

TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE

From the Greek Bible we pass on to the subject of Christian translations. It would not be hard to show that the Protestant principle of freely giving the Holy Scriptures to the several nations in their own tongues is not only the right, but also the primitive one.

The Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic, Armenian, Arabic and other versions might be brought forward as proof of this. But we are chiefly concerned here with the Latin translation. As early as the 2nd century the ‘old Latin’ version saw the light. It was made for the Christians living in North Africa. They could not understand Greek, and consequently it was necessary to give them the Word of God in the language they knew. This version seems to have been taken from the Greek Bible, both in the old and new Testaments. But when Jerome revised it in the end of the 4th century, he used his remarkable knowledge of Hebrew with good effect. Though his temper was not the sweetest, yet doubtless the inability of his contemporaries to appreciate his services as a corrector and reviser gave him some cause for bitterness. And if he did not get all the thanks he deserved in his own day, after ages have even unduly magnified his work. His revision came to be called the Vulgate, or the common edition, and it has retained this name all down the centuries. A special interest attaches to this Latin Bible, because it was brought into England by the early missionaries, and from it the Anglo-Saxon portions and Wycliffe's famous translation were made.

EARLY CHRISTIANITY OF GREAT BRITIAN AND IRELAND

There is some reason to believe that the knowledge of Christ Jesus had penetrated even to the British Isles in the first century of our era. It cannot, however, have been widely diffused, and it made but litle impression upon the prevailing Pagan darkness. But in the 5th century, chiefly through the preaching of St. Patrick, Ireland had become the

‘Island of the saints,’ and her sons were famous for their spiritual enlightenment and missionary zeal. Some of these under Columba crossed over to Iona, a beautiful little island near the Western Coast of Scotland, in the 6th century. From Iona they carried the Gospel into North Britain, and by the labours of Aidan in the following century the Word of Life was borne southwards until even remote parts of England felt its gracious touch and were blessed by its benign influences. This is not the place to enter into the question of Augustine's mission from Rome in the end of the 6th century, and the good or evil which it accomplished. But we may accept the testimony of competent historians that so far as the spread of Christian truth was concerned, it was confined within the bounds of Kent, and that Aidan, not Augustine, was the apostle of England.

THE GOOD NEWS . . . The New Testament tells the gospel, or good news of Jesus Christ, and describes experiences of the early Christians. Luke dictated his gospel to a scribe, who wrote it down in Greek. The other books of the New Testament were also written in Greek. The sayings of Jesus may first have been written down in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.

Much of the New Testament consists of letters written by Paul and the other apostles to early Christian churches throughout the Mediterranean world. Copies were made for neighboring churches, and these, with copies of the gospel writings were widely circulated.

The oldest known fragment of a New Testament manuscript is a tiny piece of papyrus written early in the second century. It contains a few words from the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. There are 27 books and 260 chapters in the New Testament.

In the 7th century, then, Paganism had given place to Christianity.

CAEDMON

And towards the close of that century, a Christian poet suddenly arose to take the place of the old heathen bards. Like the prophet Amos, he was not an educated scholar, but only a simple herdman. His name was Caedmon, and he lived in Whitby Abbey, then called ‘Streane-salch.’ The custom was, at their festive gatherings, to pass the harp round the hall in the evening time and whoever received it was expected, there and then, to compose his song, set it to music, and sing it for the pleasure of the company. On one occasion, when it came to Caedmon's turn, he had no words and no music and could make no attempt at minstrelsy. Sad at heart, and ashamed, he retired from the party to hide his grief in solitude. Going out of the place where the cattle were kept he lay down upon the hard ground and by-and-by he fell asleep. In his sleep he thought he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Arise and sing.’ ‘What shall I sing?’ he asked; and the voice replied, ‘Sing about the beginning of all things.’ Thereupon he composed a poem about the beginnings of all things. It could not be termed a translation of the early part of Genesis, but it was a paraphrase in verse. Afterwards he rendered other portions of the Bible into similar poetic paraphrases, and they had at least this advantage, that unlearned men could learn them by heart, sing them at their work, and talk of them when they sat in the house or walked by the way. Whatever their defects may have been, these paraphrases will always be had in honour as the first effort ever made to give to the English people the Word of God in their own tongue. (To Be Continued)

A TRANSLATION INTO LATIN . . . 410 A.D. . . . Jerome, a scholar appointed by the Bishop of Rome, worked twenty-five years to translate the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek into every-day Latin. Latin was then the common language of the people in many parts of the western world. Known as the Vulgate, Jerome's translation is still the official text of the Roman Catholic church.

In order to be as thorough as possible, Jerome did most of his work in Palestine, spending much of his time in Bethlehem. He first translated the whole Bible from Greek into Latin. Then he made a fresh translation of the Old Testament, this time from the Hebrew.

The term ‘Vulgate’ comes from the Latin word ‘vulgus’ meaning ‘common’ or ‘ordinary’. It was first applied to Jerome's Bible in the thirteenth century and refers to the frequent and common use made of this translation by the church, as well as to the fact that, in Jerome's time, Latin was the language spoken by the common people.

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